GOING DEAF FOR A LIVING is a music fans website, edited by myself Steve Lamacq, with occasional contributions from assorted guest writers, errant musicians and scholarly drinkers.

Live shows

It was a few years ago, while watching 6Music colleague Stuart Maconie in the literary tent at Latitude Festival – segueing from stories about Morrissey into his days at the NME – when a friend turned to me and said, “you could do that.”

And how we laughed! The absurdity! The vanity!

Anyway, a couple of years later, with a knowing smile, I started doing something like that. It’s a One Man Show called Going Deaf For A Living: The Story Of A Music Fan (because its not just my stories, it’s about the shared experiences nearly all of us have been through in the pursuit of our love of pop music).

It’s about the ways we fall in love with bands – and the ways they repay us: first with joy and understanding…and then with disappointment, a new logo and a pointless third guitarist.

It traces the madness from the first singles we’ve bought to the best gigs we’ve seen. The highs and lows of a life sound tracked by music.

There’s behind the scenes stories about bands I’ve crossed paths with (Nirvana, Oasis, Blur and the like) and there’s thoughts on how the music scene has changed over the past 30 years. It’s 90 minutes long (with a 15-minute half time break). And since the first tour in 2017 we’ve so far done about 16 dates – including sell out shows at London’s 100 Club and on my home turf at Colchester Arts Centre.

And they’ll be more this year to coincide with the republication of my book of the same name. Would be lovely to see you at one of the shows.

There’s also a smattering of DJ gigs to come which we’ll list here as well.